Kiss a Falling Star

by Barabara Elsborg

  As Tom turned, Caspar called him back. “Tom, Geoff pushed Ally in there. He was trying to kill her.”

  “Emma’s boyfriend?”

  “Pretending to be. This has something to do with a father Ally’s never seen, but if you find Geoff, keep him with you and call the police.”

  “Right. Don’t fuck this up, Caspar.”

  What if he already had?

  * * * * *

  The police car carrying Caspar arrived at Buxton Hospital at the same time as the ambulance. By then, Caspar had told them everything he knew. They liaised with the guy who’d been talking to a revived Ally in the ambulance and there was an alert out for Geoff’s car.

  Caspar hung back as Ally was wheeled into the hospital, but he wasn’t prepared to let her out of his sight. He was relieved a policeman had been left to guard her, but within moments Ally was out of sight of both of them. Caspar paced in the corridor outside her room while the policeman sat on a chair. Caspar couldn’t keep still. He was shocked he’d almost lost her before he’d come to his senses. Would he really have let her walk away even without that call from Luljeta?

  Not too far away from Ally’s room, a floor higher, Neil lay in bed. That afternoon, Caspar had stood embarrassed as Neil cried and thanked him for saving his life.

  “You’ve given me another chance,” Neil said. “We’re not all so lucky. I won’t waste it.”

  Ally had exploded into Caspar’s world like a supernova. Her energy and enthusiasm had sparked him back to life. She’d made him laugh when he’d been resigned to a future of unhappiness. She’d brought light into his black world. His experiences in Albania, those long years in prison had changed him—he’d thought forever, but Ally had made him see the man he once was, the man he wanted to be and could be if she was with him. Only he didn’t deserve her.

  Caspar and the cop looked up when the door opened. A nurse and doctor came out.

  “Is she okay?” Caspar asked.

  The doctor looked at him. “Relative?”

  If she’d have me. “Almost,” Caspar said.

  “She’s fine. Just tired and shocked. We’re keeping her in overnight for observation.”

  “Can I see her?” Caspar asked.

  “For a few minutes.”

  Caspar pushed open the door, and Ally turned her head on the pillow and looked at him. When she didn’t turn away, he allowed himself to hope.

  “How are you?” he asked.

  “The doctor says I’ll feel better when my body finally rejects the pain-in-the-neck virus that makes my heart pound.”

  Caspar took a step nearer. “I’ve caught the same thing but I’m not sure the doctor’s right. I don’t want to lose something that makes me feel so alive.”

  “Ah, but a lot of the time it makes me feel crappy.” Ally stared at him without blinking.

  Shit.

  “Hugs are the best medicine,” Ally said in a tiny voice.

  Caspar released a strangled sob and pulled her into his arms. He lay next to her on the bed and held her against his chest.

  “Oh Ally,” he breathed the words into her hair. “Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me.” He pulled back so he could look into her face. “I love you.” Caspar watched her eyes fill with tears and he licked the salty drop that fell onto her cheek. “I love you and I—I think that’s part of my problem. I’d expected to go through life having meaningless fucks. I never dreamed I’d be lucky enough to meet someone who’d make my life worth living because she’s part of it. My world would be empty without you. No one else can fill the hole if you leave me. I love you. Only you. For always.”

  Ally kissed him. A sweet, gentle kiss and Caspar thought for one heart-stopping moment he was too late, that this was a goodbye kiss, and then her tongue slipped into his mouth, she held his face and they were really kissing. A slow, open-mouthed kiss that made Caspar’s head swim with longing.

  “Time’s— Ooops,” said a nurse at the door. “Okay fine. Unconventional treatment but seems to be working. Couple more minutes.” The door closed again.

  There were things Caspar needed to say. “Lina and I are not engaged. Never have been. The photos were some stupid publicity stunt. The life-drawing thing…” He swallowed hard. “I was offered a hundred pounds to model for an hour. I didn’t know what that involved until I got there. I needed the money to take you out. I didn’t want you to think all I wanted was sex.”

  “You don’t have to explain,” Ally said.

  “I don’t?”

  “I figured it out. You pushed me away to try and get things back the way they were. I only guessed that you might have been spying. I wanted the people in Wyndale to treat you better, to see the real you. But if that put someone in Albania in danger, I’m sorry.”

  Richard had been right to squash anything appearing in the papers, but next week local gossip could have Caspar as a werewolf.

  “I’ve spoken to the woman I met the night Jem was taken. She’s in no danger. Doesn’t mean I should be blabbing her name, but there is no reason to push you away. There was never a reason. It was all part of my punishment, I think. Deanna’s father still wanting his pound of flesh.”

  “I’m sorry I ever said you were a spy,” Ally whispered.

  “It’s okay. No real harm’s been done. The Albanians decided I wasn’t a spy then, so why would they think it now?”

  Ally wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close.

  Caspar lay with his head on her chest and listened to her heart. He swallowed hard. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you said someone was trying to kill you. I’m not sure you should ever forgive me for that. You believed in me and I let you down. I’ll never disbelieve you again.”

  “Good. I’m from the planet Geldo 12. Sent to Earth to—”

  He shut her up with a kiss. “Sorry.” Kiss. “Sorry.” Kiss. “Sorry.”

  “I want to go home,” she whispered. “We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

  Caspar leaned up on one elbow. “We have?”

  “Have you looked at your emails today?”

  “No.”

  “You’ve got an interview for a job. Me too. That one where the inconsiderate bastard is looking for a multitalented slave.”

  He frowned. “You’ve looked at my emails?”

  “I think I’d be great spy.”

  “Bloody hell. You worked out my password?” He gaped at her.

  Ally sniggered. “I looked over your shoulder.”

  Caspar growled. “If you weren’t in a hospital bed…”

  “Let me get dressed and I won’t be. I feel fine.”

  Caspar listened in amazement as Ally sweet-talked the doctor into discharging her, and then persuaded the police to give them a ride back to Wyndale. Not that he could have resisted her. He held her tight all the way back, still struggling with the thought that he might have lost her.

  The two of them stood by the car while the cops checked Caspar’s house. He could have done it, but he didn’t want to leave Ally on her own.

  “You don’t think Geoff would turn up here, do you?” Ally asked in a small voice.

  Caspar partly hoped he would so he could rearrange his internal organs. “No. My guess is he’s driven straight to London in an attempt to maintain the illusion he never left the city after he drove your friends back. Even if he finds out you’re not dead, the whole point of what he was doing has been lost. If anything happens to you, he’s the first one they’ll arrest.”

  “Except that’s what they said about Jack. Oh God, you don’t think both of them wanted me dead?” Ally cringed. “Might as well add Emma to that list. She’s not going to be happy I’ve wrecked her relationship with Geoff, even if he is a nutcase.”

  Caspar hugged her. “When I wished my life was less dull, I hadn’t quite envisaged what a whirlwind like you could do it.”

  “You’re fine to go in,” said one of the policemen. “I don’t think there’s much likelihood of him showing up here. We’
ve got a watch out for his car, but any concerns, call us.”

  Caspar grasped Ally’s hand and pulled her to the door. When it was closed and locked, he let out a deep sigh. “You. Me. Bed. Now.”

  “You. Kitchen. Get. Food.”

  Caspar laughed. “I’ll bring you something up.”

  Ally wondered how the worst day in her life could have changed to the best. Caspar loved her. He loved her. She’d wanted to say it back but didn’t want the first time to merely parrot him. Ally stripped as she walked up to the bedroom, laying a trail of clothes for Caspar to follow, and climbed into his bed naked. Everything was going to be fine now. Ally shivered. Well, it would when Caspar was in here to warm up the bed. Ally tucked her head under the duvet, and scissored her legs as she thrashed around. She bucked and flailed, kicked and wriggled, trying to generate some heat.

  “What are you doing?” Caspar asked.

  Ally popped her head out. “Having sex with the invisible man.”

  Caspar laughed and offered her a plate of toast. “Is he any good?”

  “He’s tricky to keep hold of. Never sure which bit I’m grabbing.” She sat up, sank her teeth into the hot, buttered toast and sighed. “Lovely. Mmm.”

  As Ally ate, she moaned louder and louder. Caspar watched her in amusement as he stripped.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” Ally gasped, and he took the empty plate from her.

  “Good toast?”

  “The toast? No, the invisible man has a wickedly inventive tongue.”

  Caspar was still laughing as he slipped under the covers. “You lied,” came his muffled voice. “You’re not wearing red lace panties as you come.”

  Ally sighed as Caspar slowly slid two fingers inside her. He dipped in and out to spread her moisture in tight circles, rubbing her clit with each thrust, pressing it with the heel of his hand. He kissed across her belly, his slightly rough chin following his whisper-soft breath until his face joined his fingers at the junction of her legs. Ally melted into the bed, tension pouring from her, memories of this evening’s fear dissipating under Caspar’s touch.

  Her fingers spearing his hair, all Ally could do was remember to breathe while his tongue teased the swollen bud of her clit. And breathing wasn’t easy. Air burst in and out of her mouth in hard, noisy gasps. Caspar licked her, sucked her, ate her until her world shrank, the bedroom disappeared and all she knew was the pleasure of his touch, his clever tongue and his thrusting fingers. He pulled her closer and closer to the brink of paradise and then snatched it away by drawing back.

  Ally pulled his hair. “Caspaaar,” she wailed, and felt him laugh against her, the vibration rippling into her belly.

  Then his fingers thrust again and touched some point inside her that made her hips buck off the mattress. His tongue was back on her clit, the high-speed flutter reaching her heart. Ally was caught in the flow. No way out. No way back. Nothing could stop this, not even the end of the world. A rush of heat spread from her epicenter and the quake that followed engulfed her in waves of pleasure so intense she cried out.

  Even as the feelings faded, she wanted more.

  Caspar’s head emerged from the duvet next to hers and he was on her in a heartbeat, mouths together, his lips pressed to hers, his tongue kissing her tongue while their bodies melted along their lengths. He rolled so Ally straddled him and she pushed herself up, her knees on either side of his hips. Caspar’s hands settled on her breasts and he rolled his thumbs over her nipples. They moaned at the same time and then laughed together.

  “A perfect pair,” Caspar said, and when he looked into her eyes, Ally knew he meant more than her breasts.

  She came up on her knees and angled his thick cock until it rested against her folds. Caspar ran his hands down the sides of her body and gripped her hips. Ally lowered herself as slowly as she could, fighting Caspar’s tug, squeezing her muscles around his cock as she engulfed him inch by inch. Caspar groaned and his hands trembled against her. Ally loved seeing him slide into her, watching him disappear, feeling him so hot and hard inside her.

  Once he was buried to the hilt, Ally twisted her hips and clenched around him.

  “Oh God,” Caspar blurted.

  Ally pulled his hands from her hips, threaded her fingers through his and held their joined hands in the air between them. Then she began to move against him, raising and lowering her hips with tantalizing slowness. Caspar’s face was taut with concentration. She moved faster and he grunted.

  Would sex always be like this? Ally wondered. So beautiful it made her heart hurt? He thrust up into her down stroke, his cock reaching deep into her, and Ally felt as though she were breaking apart. She heard herself whimpering, and something hot and golden burst inside her. As she closed her eyes and flew into the abyss, Caspar’s fingers tightened around hers and his cock swelled and jerked inside her.

  “Ally, Ally,” he whispered.

  The sensation of warmth as his cum bathed her pussy triggered another spasm from her muscles and she clenched around him. Caspar hissed and Ally opened her eyes.

  “Phew,” she gasped. “Thought you were a snake.”

  Caspar pulled her down to lie on his chest. “You’re not frightened of my pet snake, are you? It’s ferociously protective of his nest. No other snakes will dare come anywhere near while he’s around.”

  He pulled the duvet over them and wrapped his arms around her. Ally felt safe. She almost said the words and then bit them back. The moment had to be right. She’d keep them in her head for now.

  I love you.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Caspar held Ally’s hand on the bus to Manchester airport. “You do know this is a waste of time?”

  Ally glared. If he said that one more time, she’d thump him. “No, it’s not.” She’d had to lever him out of bed, force him to get dressed and they’d almost missed the bus.

  “I can’t see the point,” Caspar said, and sighed.

  “If you keep going on about it, I…I won’t show you my trick with cherries.”

  Caspar clamped his lips together and pretended to draw a zipper across. Ally unzipped his mouth.

  “I don’t want to go,” he blurted. “I don’t want a job that will take me miles from you. Though the chances of getting it are zero.”

  “Hey, what if he offers it to me and not you? Maybe I’d like a job that takes me miles from you.”

  Caspar smirked. Ally loved that he was confident enough to know she didn’t mean it.

  “How many interviews have you had since you came home?” she asked.

  Caspar sucked in his cheeks. “A couple.”

  “So look on this as experience. I bet you’ve forgotten what to do if you get asked awkward questions. Like what’s your worst fault? Or what would you do if a bear rushed into the room brandishing an axe and a chainsaw?”

  “An axe and a chainsaw?”

  “He’s an ambidextrous bear.”

  Caspar laughed. “What should I do?”

  “You need to perfect a technique like looking thoughtful and counting to ten or asking a question back or praising the question they asked. That sort of thing.”

  “In the meantime, the chainsaw has wreaked havoc.”

  Ally glared. “It’s hypothetical. To see how you handle stress.”

  “Okay. Well, I’d make sure the interviewer was between me and the bear.”

  She laughed. “You might get asked for your worst fault. What are you going to say?”

  “Lack of coffee makes me grouchy.”

  Ally smiled.

  Caspar squeezed her fingers. “What do you do if you’re asked a difficult question?”

  “Cry.”

  He laughed.

  “It’s true. That’s how I got the job at Paxton’s Precious Metals. Rent was due, I was desperate and it worked.”

  Caspar raised his eyebrows. “In retrospect?”

  “Maybe it wasn’t such a good job.” The attempted murder charges against Jack had been dropped, but he’d p
robably do time for insurance fraud and arson. Plus there was an ongoing investigation into his dealings with some Russians with Ally’s emails part of the evidence.

  “Maybe?”

  “It was okay until Jack went weird. But this job might be wonderful. You wouldn’t need to do it forever, but it would look great on your CV. And if you get it, I’ll come and live close by.” So long as it isn’t somewhere expensive. “I mean he might have said 24/7 but you have to have some time to yourself. That time of course will be mine.”

  “What if you get offered the job?”

  Ally guffawed. “We both know that’s not going to happen. But maybe he’ll need a cleaner or something.”

  She tried to hide it but suspected Caspar heard the tremor of uncertainty in her voice. No way was she qualified for this job, but Caspar was, and if it was offered, she’d make him take it. Ally tugged on his hand and nodded to the window. “We’re here.”

  The bus pulled up at the terminal and they stood.

  “I’ll bring the bags,” Caspar said.

  Ally grabbed hers. “Mine’s not heavy.”

  “I can’t believe he expects someone to walk away from everything and start work this afternoon,” Caspar said as he stepped off the bus.

  “He probably wants to see how responsive we are to instructions.”

  Caspar smothered his laugh. “No, you’re not going to get the job, Ms Right-Left-Right.”

  Ally thumped his shoulder.

  They made their way to the business center in Terminal One and Ally was surprised how nervous she felt, considering this was a job she had no hope of getting.

  “How do I look?” she asked as they walked down the corridor.

  She wore a dark blue suit with a pink shirt and pink high heels. Her interview outfit.

  “Good enough to eat,” Caspar said.

  He looked too good to eat. Ally hadn’t seen him in a suit before. She’d trimmed his hair after breakfast, and when he’d emerged in the dark business suit and white shirt, she’d been rendered speechless.

  They stopped at the door to the interview room, Ally smoothed down her skirt and read the notice pinned there.

  “Wait here until the inconsiderate bastard is ready for you.”